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Pakistan’s Dark Ages

When people discuss the ‘Dark Ages’, they are usually referring to a historical period in Europe after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. This period is considered to be a period when Europe moved backwards from what was once its great height of political, cultural, and economic achievement. Today, Pakistan, once a part of the Umayyad Caliphate and the great Mughal Empire is itself suffering hard times, and many are looking for a return to those golden eras of hundreds or thousands of years ago. This nostalgia for an imagined past, though, is a symptom itself, not the cause of our trouble. At the root of our problems is a mentality that continues to look backwards, to dwell in fantasy versions of the past rather than facing the realities of today.

So did the generals and civilians understand that the old ways of thinking had to go after 9/11? “Neither the military, nor civilians, understood the impact of 9/11 – not then, not now,” says Gen Mahmud Durrani, who was appointed Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US by Musharraf in 2006, and later served as the national security advisor to Prime Minister Yusaf Raza Gilani. “9/11 redefined the world. But we didn’t understand its impact on our own geopolitical landscape – not ten years ago, and not now.”

Though Gen Durrani admits that Pakistan was taken by the ear and dragged to the well after 9/11, he also maintains that it failed to choose well even when choices were present. “We have not grappled with the issue of extremism seriously – neither the public, nor the government nor army. Salman Taseer’s assassination is an example of how much we have ignored this problem and to what end,” said Gen Durrani.

Indeed even before 9/11, as early as 2000, GHQ commissioned a classified report called “Pakistan’s Security Imperatives in the Medium Term,” which concluded that Pakistan’s security threat was primarily internal and unless there was a change in strategic thinking the country could be dragged in an undesirable direction by a tiny but well-organised minority.

“And that’s exactly what is happening today,” says Gen Durrani. “But to this day the army doesn’t quite get the threat. We continue to court some of the elements responsible, either out of fear or because we genuinely believe our interests lie in doing this.”

It’s not just that the Army doesn’t see any threat, of course. Operations in Swat that cleared out militants were a success precisely because GHQ understood that those militants were not just a threat to American troops in Afghanistan, but to Pakistan itself. But no nation is lucky enough to face one threat at a time, and so officers have to make priorities. And here is where the pre-9/11 mindset shows itself again. We are still fighting the 1965 war alost fifty years later. The military is so obsessed with defending against a hypothetical Indian attack that it sees today’s actual attacks from jihadis as lower priority.

Insiders also cite another hurdle in the way of Pakistan’s anti-terror efforts: its India obsession. “The army continues to see terrorism merely as a latent threat and India as the more clear and present danger,” says Gen Durrani.

The mentality that is being projected today is about more than a single event like 9/11. It is a mentality that is constantly looking backwards. Our India obsession does more than just provide a playground for jihadi militants to plan and carry out attacks against innocents. It’s leaving us in the dark, both figuratively and literally.

This year’s Education Emergency movement may have lost its trendy appeal among the fashionable middle class, but the problem remains very serious. 3 million children will never see the inside of a classroom. 50 per cent of school children (aged 6-16) cannot read a sentence. And yet we boast the fourth largest nuclear arsenal of the world. We can kill, but we cannot read.

The priorities of national institutions is made clear by this photo that was taken from space. The orange line that winds its way across the middle is not a photoshop, it is the floodlights on the border with India that stays perpetually lit while so much of the rest of the country is blanketed in darkness.

After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, Europe suffered a period of decline that resulted in suffering for its people. Today, Europe is again a cultural and economic power of the world. It regained this status not by looking backwards and trying to reinstate the Holy Roman Empire, but by modernising and adapting to new ideas and the world as it had become, not as it once was. Pakistan, too, can leave this dark age that we find ourselves in. But only if we stop looking to the past for answers, and start building a Pakistan that can lead in the world as it exists today.

@Mukhtar, yes the floodlights are on the Indian side but it is still a sign of the problem. Why is there smuggling? Because national institutions prioritise perceived military threats over the potential peace that could come from increased trade. Why is there arms trafficking? Because we continue to act as adversaries rather than neighbors. Certainly there are some Indian elements that are also part of the problem, but we must take responsibility for the problems in our own house first. There will always be some in India who reject that Pakistan is independent and there will always be some in Pakistan who dream of raising a Khalifa flag over Delhi. But the vast majority of us, the sane ones, would rather see the border lit up by trade and toursim, not security floodlights.

Mahmood Adeel call in the “Marines,Green Berets,Red Berets
French Legion and all U know”? So help us! get rid of this
army that so irritates your psyche,pull down the colors and raise what U think is best for the nation. O’How You and others create such venom and inject into the gullible minds.If thou hast courage come forth and stand in the open on the highest step of Faisal Mosque or the Minar in Lahore,or stand at the famous#90 in Karachi,Tell the nation You have the best solution to save our souls.Otherwise stop spreading your vicious venom.

Khalid Rahim, I am fascinated by how your mind works, but I think I have a clue. When I ‘spread my vicious venom’ against politicians, you write flowery poetry to add perfume to the posts. But if I dare make the slightest criticism of the Angels in Khaki then you become a jealous lover whose flowers reveal thorns. But our military is made of men, not angels, and like all men they make mistakes. This is only natural, and not a humiliation. Even the mightiest armies of history are known to make miscalculations. Oh how Napoleon would take back his invasion of Russia! The Japanese their attack on Pearl Harbor! It is the true friend who warns you when you are taking the wrong path. It is your enemy who quietly lets you go astray.